


A Universal Truth

by habitatfordeanwinchester



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Confessions, Dean and Cas are both complete saps, Destiel Christmas Minibang 2015, Everyone talks about their actual feelings, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, author seeks own emotional catharsis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 17:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5426270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/habitatfordeanwinchester/pseuds/habitatfordeanwinchester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Would you mind terribly if I borrowed the Impala?”</p><p>“Baby?” Dean tried not to sound too alarmed. “Why? Where do you want to go?”</p><p>“There’s a light display here. I saw a commercial for it. It’s called Christmas in the Park. It’s close by and it’s supposed to be really beautiful.”</p><p>Dean stared. “You want to drive my car through a giant swarm of Christmas lights?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Universal Truth

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for day 14 of [The Destiel Christmas Minibang](http://destielchristmasminibang.tumblr.com/). My prompt was Christmas Lights.

Dean Winchester was good at assessing risk. He may not have always made the right choice, but it would be unfair to say that he didn’t expect his actions to have consequences. For example, he knew that taking on the Mark of Cain meant he was probably going to die. He also knew that his death would be worth it if he could save a few people along the way. He knew that if he didn’t remember to buy coffee grounds, Sam was just going to use it as leverage in the never-ending argument about purchasing a Keurig. And finally, he knew that Castiel was just completely unmanageable in the early mornings without some form of java.

Unfortunately, some things in life you just can’t prepare for.

They’d just finished with a routine case in Iowa. At first they’d suspected Amara might have something to do with the string of gruesome murders, but after almost a week, they’d managed to uncover a wraith working as the county coroner. She’d been working there for over twenty years, contenting herself with the brains of the dead, often flooded with neurotransmitters just as they died. It seemed corpses were no longer enough. Once they figured out what was going on, it was a simple matter of finding some silver. Everything was going well until she got the jump on Dean.

He wasn’t sure how he’d missed her, but when he felt a cold hand clamp down on the back of his neck, he knew immediately what was happening. She was quick though, jerking away before he could get to her. His heart was racing as he chased her down the hallway, just in time to see Castiel run a silver blade through her heart.

Her corpse had barely hit the ground before Cas made it to Dean’s side, asking in a low voice: “Are you hurt?”

Dean’s head was still spinning from the toxins, but he shook his head. Castiel frowned and brought a hand up to his cheek, furrowing his brow a little. Immediately Dean felt the electric cooling touch of grace as it surged through his body, racing like a homing missile to every single ache, every sore muscle. The dizziness eased quickly and whatever the wraith had injected him with was neutralized. After a few seconds Dean delicately pulled away from Cas, his cheeks flushing the lightest shade of pink.

“’m not some damsel in distress, Cas,” he mumbled.

Castiel frowned, which Dean had expected. What he didn’t expect was the absolutely crestfallen look in his eyes.

“Is everyone alright?” Sam asked as he made his way up the basement stairs. He looked quickly at the wraith and then between Dean and Cas. The look on his face, like someone who’d interrupted something important, only made Dean feel worse. He frowned, nodded curtly at Sam, then turned on the heel of his blood stained boots, and made his way to the Impala.

 The case had been in the middle of Iowa, so Dean never expected they’d make it home in one day. The ride was quiet, filled only with the sound of Dean’s trusty Led Zeppelin cassettes. They’d made it as far as Kansas City by nightfall, when Dean had literally heard Castiel’s stomach growling in the backseat.

“We’ll stop here for the night,” he told them both as he pulled off at the nearest exit. He may have had a few more hours of driving left in him, but he figured they could all use a decent meal and a few hours of downtime.

Dean suggested that they stop at Biggerson’s for dinner, which Sam immediately rejected with a world-class bitch face and a huffy: “Your turducken literally turned into grey goo, Dean.”

Dean acquiesced and allowed Sam to direct them to a hole in the wall steakhouse and bar. A pretty blond waitress brought them over some menus; Dean searched through his intensely, while Sam chatted up the waitress. He eventually ordered a bacon cheeseburger that tasted so good it rivaled some of the more mediocre sex he’d had.

Cas ordered the same thing, only in double, and Dean watched in quiet awe as the angel put away two immense burgers and contemplated ordering a third.

With some food in his stomach and some distance between himself and the case, Dean began to get the distinct sense he might have overreacted with Cas earlier. Apologies weren’t exactly his specialty, but Cas was looking at him kind of like he imagined a kitten would if you’d accidentally stepped on its tail. When Sam went to the bar to grab another beer, Dean looked over at his friend.

Castiel met his eyes for a moment, then his blue eyes began to dart around, as if looking for any scratches or hurts he might have missed. Dean’s insides felt all warm in a way the Mark had made him forget he could feel.

“Any sign of Amara on angel radio?” Dean asked.

Castiel shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

Dean sighed. “Maybe she’s taking a break for the holidays. Putting up Christmas trees in hell or something.”

This made Cas crack a smile for the first time since they took the wraith case, and instantly that fuzzy feeling was back in Dean’s stomach. As he always did whenever things weren’t terrible, Dean figured it was time to begin avoiding his emotions. He looked around for Sam, who looked to be making significant progress with the waitress.

He shot a proud smile over at Cas. “Well, at least someone is getting laid tonight.”

Castiel furrowed his brow. “How can you tell she wants to sleep with him? I haven’t seen either of them initiate physical contact.”

Dean laughed, suddenly reminded of his disastrous attempt to hook Cas up with a stripper during the apocalypse. While intellectually he knew Cas wasn’t a virgin anymore, it wasn’t something he particularly liked to think about. He’d never asked for the details, but now he was pretty willing to bet that the reaper had “initiated physical contact”. It made his smile falter a little, but he plunged forward.

“You don’t have to initiate physical contact to tell if a girl wants you,” Dean coached. “There are other little signs.”

Cas tilted his head slightly to the side, a kind of bird-like confusion that Dean had always found insufferably adorable. “Like what?”

Dean tried to fight the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips. It felt good to finally be able to help Cas with something, even if it was something as insignificant as teaching him how to gauge a woman’s interest.  “Well, the fact that she immediately paid more attention to Sam was my first clue. Then there’s the fact that her eyes are more dilated when she looks at him, which she’s been doing pretty much nonstop since we got here. That’s fine though, because he’s been staring back,” he glanced between his brother and the blonde, whose nametag said ‘Kelsey’, before continuing. “And sure, they’re not touching, but see how close they’re standing? It’s usually a sign of sexual or romantic interest or whatever.”

Castiel looked at him as if Dean were divulging state secrets. “So that’s all it took for you to notice that she was interested?”

Dean shrugged. “Pretty much. Of course, the only real way to tell is to actually ask her. She’s got final say. But yeah, that stuff usually means that the clothes are coming off.”

Sure enough, after a moment of silence in which Cas looked supremely concerned, Sam returned to their table with his best pair of puppy eyes. He’d barely opened his mouth before Dean snorted: “Save it, we’ll go grab a hotel. I’ll text you the address. Wear a condom.”

Sam flushed a little. “You’re an ass,” he grabbed his jacket from the back of the seat and looked between Cas and Dean. “No fighting while I’m gone.”

Dean rolled his eyes and he and Cas chit chatted while they settled the bill. The next thing Dean knew, they were on their way to a motel. When they arrived at the reception desk, the girl working looked between them with a gentle grin and asked if they wanted a single. Dean blushed bright red and insisted on a double before paying with one of his many fake credit cards.

On their way to the room Cas caught his eye. “Aren’t we still short a bed, Dean?”

Dean shook his head. “I doubt Sam will be back before morning, but if he is he can take the floor. The guy getting laid doesn’t get priority dibs on shitty motel beds. It’s just a law of the universe, Cas.”

It was only 9:30 by the time Dean got out of the shower, and he found Cas propped up on the bed closest to the door, remote in hand. The channel was set to ABC Family and Dean immediately recognized the show as a rerun of the movie Elf. Castiel gave him a long sheepish look, and before he could even get a word out Dean asked what was going on.

“Would you mind terribly if I borrowed the Impala?”

“Baby?” Dean tried not to sound too alarmed. “Why? Where do you want to go?”

“There’s a light display here. I saw a commercial for it. It’s called Christmas in the Park. It’s close by and it’s supposed to be really beautiful.”

Dean stared. “You want to drive my car through a giant swarm of Christmas lights?”

“It’s an organized light display,” Castiel corrected.

“Forget it dude, Baby doesn’t do holidays and neither do I.”

Castiel frowned. “I understand where the idea of religious holidays may not be pleasant for you, Dean, but it’s just a light display. From what I can see, Christmas has very little to do with religion anymore.”

Dean had to admit the angel had a point. There hadn’t really been any “Christ” in commercial Christmas for at least a decade. He looked Castiel up and down but the angel still appeared solemn and sure about this.

Dean sighed. “It’s going to be cold in the car now, Cas.”

Castiel raised an eyebrow. “I think we’ll be fine.”

Twenty minutes later Dean found himself at the entrance of an incredibly colorful and bright display of lights. Castiel was looking up in rapturous excitement. It always took Dean a little by surprise to see him in the passenger seat, since it was usually occupied by Sam, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Let Sam have his fun. He’d been robbed of that part of his life anyway.

Dean wasn’t jealous. He really wasn’t. It felt odd to think, because for so long his life had been about sleeping around, but now the idea of picking up a stranger just made him feel tired. It wasn’t that he was bored of sex, it was just that, somewhere along the way, meaningless sex had started to feel…meaningless.

Instead he remembered the way his heart used to pound when a pretty girl winked at him from across the bar, and he couldn’t figure out how it was any different from the way he felt looking at Cas right now.

The exhibit was free but they accepted donations for local charities, so Dean pushed a rolled up five into the collection box. As they began to drive through, they passed a sign displaying the hours of operation. The park closed at 11 and it was almost 10:30, which meant Dean didn’t have to do this for very long.

He’d been skeptical of everything at first, but the lights were stunning. They twinkled and shone and many of them actually appeared to move. They drove past a ship that rocked on some bumpy seas, a carriage being driven by a Christmas elf, images of carolers with actual lyrics lit up above them as if they were singing. One long stretch of lights even depicted Santa during takeoff.

They drove slowly and quietly. The heat in Baby was working full blast but when Dean glanced over at Cas he could still see the fog of his breath against the cold glass. He had one stubbled cheek leaned against the window and he gazed out like he was being hypnotized by dancing colors.

“You really like Christmas lights, huh?” Dean asked. His tone was gentle and teasing now, earlier annoyance melted away at the sight of Castiel’s pure enjoyment. His friend deserved to feel like that, especially after everything that had happened lately.

Cas finally pulled his eyes away from a glowing, smiling Rudolph. He nodded. “I know this may sound silly, but they remind me of flying.”

Dean paused. “Flying?”

“Before I met you, before any of this, I used to fly over the earth. Angels don’t need light to see, so I always found it fascinating that you did. From the very beginning, humans have brought light where there is darkness. Your cities are glowing beacons from above. This is to say nothing of the light from your souls.”

Dean was staring at Cas now, with that kind of slack jawed awe he always felt whenever Cas talked about his time as a celestial warrior. Intellectually he knew that nothing had changed, that Cas was still as powerful, ageless and untouchable as the day he pulled Dean from hell. It was just easy to forget sometimes.

Actually, he rarely even had time to think about it, because often one of them was spelled, cursed, human, or just plain lost in Purgatory.

 “Souls give off light?” Dean asked curiously, suddenly uninterested in the giant dancing Santa that loomed in front of him.

Castiel nodded. “Very much so. Yours most of all.”

“Excuse me?”

Castiel smiled sadly, like Dean was still missing something very obvious. “You are the Righteous Man. Your soul is the brightest thing in this park.”

Dean snorted, but he couldn’t help sitting up a little straighter. Castiel was probably the only being in the universe that could make him feel as if the brightness of his soul was a praiseworthy accomplishment. “I always just figured that stuff…disappeared after the Apocalypse.”

“Heavenly destiny doesn’t work like that. You were, and you remain, the Righteous Man. Just as you are still Michael’s true vessel,” Castiel explained.

It had been a long time since he’d let himself think about the Apocalypse, but Dean had to admit that it made sense. He was quiet for a moment, watching as they passed a dazzling, if comically large, gingerbread house. “Did I ever say thank you?” he asked.

“For what?”

“Everything. Pulling me out of hell. Rebelling.”  

“I don’t believe so. However, it’s not necessary. I was s-“

Dean cut him off firmly. “Thank you.”  

His heart beat in double-time as he avoided Castiel’s eyes. He could write a thesis on all the things he should thank Cas for, yet he’d avoided the words for years. He’d been worried about what it would mean to acknowledge Castiel’s importance in his life, to acknowledge the difference he’d made. He wasn’t sure what made him so brave now, although he suspected it was because the risk of silence finally outweighed the risk of the words.

They’d spent their years moving from crisis to crisis, all the while with Dean bracing himself for the day that Castiel would pick up his wings and fly back to heaven, never to return. But sitting there in the Impala, surrounded by dazzling lights, their quiet breaths fogging cold windows, it occurred to Dean that Castiel was going to stay.

The revelation had been a long time coming, and it made him feel a little ridiculous. It was something akin to being suddenly struck by the knowledge of gravity. It was a universal truth. Dean needed air to breathe. The sun was going to rise in the morning. Castiel was going to stay.

His throat felt tight and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He forced himself to refocus on driving, as if thanking his best friend wasn’t somehow the most profound thing he’d ever done. He was so busy staring at the motorcycle someone had made from the lights that he actually jumped when Castiel placed a hand on his shoulder, an inverted echo of the handprint he’d once left there.

“You’re welcome, Dean.” Castiel said, breaking the heavy silence. Dean tore his eyes from the path and met Castiel’s, hoping his emotions were safely below the surface.

Castiel looked as if the words had hit him hard. He was smiling gently, head tilted slightly. Still, there was a tightness to his mouth, as if Cas was actively restraining himself from saying something. Silhouetted against the twinkling lights, Dean could almost imagine the glow was a halo.

They drove through the rest of the displays in a pleasant, companionable silence. Dean tried to slow the drum of his heart, to remind himself that he’d been able to say something important without any looming crisis. Sure, Amara was an immense threat, and sure God was still MIA, but no one had been actively bleeding out and Dean had said what he needed to say.

Once back on the main road, Castiel flashed him another smile. “Thank you for accompanying me. Everything was beautiful.”

 “It wasn’t completely awful. Just don’t tell Sam, or we’ll come home and find a Christmas tree in the bunker. We’d be sweeping up pine needles ‘til February.”

Castiel actually laughed at that, loudly and innocently and Dean smiled broadly at the sound.

 They made their way back to the hotel and found a parking spot. They’d had dinner a few hours ago but Dean was already considering ordering a pizza. He was about to ask Cas what kind of toppings to get when he found they’d stopped in front of their hotel door.

Dean felt in his jean pockets for a key but came up empty. He was about to worry when Castiel leaned in close and his train of thought abruptly derailed. There were only a few short inches between them and Dean’s eyes skimmed over Castiel’s lips.

He wasn’t really sure what was happening until he heard the distinctive click of a door unlocking. He glanced downward, and for the first time, noticed that Castiel had the key.

They held their positions for a moment, cold air washing over them. Dean felt rooted to the ground and he caught himself leaning forward minutely, just as Castiel took three steps backward, looking distressed.

“I believe I owe you an apology, Dean.” Castiel began, and Dean could feel his heart sink. Everything had been going so well.

“For what?”

Cas looked uncomfortable. “I apologize if I have been too forward with my interest. I understand now that it must have been terribly awkward, but I assure you that I had no idea I was being so blatant.”

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about?” Dean blurted out quickly. He felt like a kid at a middle school dance. Everything was confusing, his adrenaline was pumping and part of his mind could do nothing but repeat the fact that Castiel had said he was interested in him.

 “At dinner, you informed me that there were many subtle indicators of sexual and romantic attraction. I’ve been thinking about that, and I…” he paused, as if to gather himself, one hand adjusting his tie. “I’m quite unaccustomed to that particular brand of interaction, and I didn’t know that I was communicating my feelings so clearly.”

Dean was struck dumb, and needed to be sure he’d heard right before he reacted. “You have romantic feelings for me?”

Castiel looked visibly taken aback. “Of course.”

And just like that, Dean Winchester came to realize another universal truth.

Castiel had feelings for him. Romantic feelings. The same kind that Dean had for him.  

It was overwhelming to know that Castiel felt the same way. Castiel needed him, just as Dean needed  Castiel. Of course, nothing between them was ever that easy. In fact, nothing in Dean’s life was easy. Shared feelings didn’t mean everything would be perfect, that they’d never fight and they’d never lose each other. It didn’t mean the world wasn’t in danger and it didn’t guarantee a fairy tale ending.

However, their feelings did mean that Dean got to ask a very particular question.

“Can I kiss you?”

Castiel nodded.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I just really wanted to write some unrepentant emotional fluff. Thanks so much to [starprincecas](http://starprincecas.tumblr.com) for the beta help!
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://habitatfordeanwinchester.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/heatherkcassady). This fic also has a super cool aesthetic art by fvckingjensen, which you can reblog [here](http://habitatfordeanwinchester.tumblr.com/post/135200483837/a-universal-truth-ao3-destiel-christmas-mini) if you were so inclined. Thanks for reading!


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